Groove Heaven (3DS eShop) Review

The Nintendo 3DS has garnered quite a few rhythm-based games in its lifetime thus far, both in and out of the eShop, and after the highs of such titles as Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure, HarmoKnight and the numerous games packed into Bit.Trip Saga, surely this latest musical adventure offering from Fun Unit and Teyon, in the form of Groove Heaven, needs to really deliver if it wants to stand out amongst them.

Bright, colourful and cute, Groove Heaven is a positive idea; one that mixes rhythmic gameplay and platforming aimed at kids. Forming a small adventure, a story is worked into the game, as young devil girl Rhymi is tasked with climbing the tower to Heaven and passing on a love letter from the Devil lord to a beautiful angel he has fallen for.

Thirty floors in the tower means thirty stages to complete. In each stage, Rhymi must work her way to the goal and try to pick up collectibles along the way, in the form of roses and musical notes. This is a very simple rhythm game, as evidenced by the two commands players must use by tapping the relevant button on the touch screen: turn and move. Tapping in time to the beat of the music, which never changes its rhythm, Rhymi can move one step with a hit of 'move,' and change direction when 'turn' is used. By tapping to move in time with the beat, Rhymi will progress quickly through the level.

Enemies and obstacles block her path and switches must be hit and springboards stood on to reach the various areas and levels of each stage, which get progressively more difficult. Since Groove Heaven is obviously a game for the younger age group, some of these stages may indeed prove frustrating, and it's sometimes necessary to go back to easier levels to pick up a few notes to build some lives up. Older players will likely breeze through more easily, but there can be annoying sections for all at times.

The unfortunate aspect of the game is that, whilst this looks lovely and sharp, and is much better when played in 3D, there are only three types of stage and three different music tracks, which changes every 10 floors. The beat never changes, so players are always consistently tapping the same rhythm, and the fact there are only 30 stages in total means this one is over far too quickly. A timed challenge of varying difficulties to rack up high scores is also available, but it's very little consolation to what otherwise could have been a much better musical adventure if only it was beefed up a little in more than one area.

Gameplay

Groove Heaven is simple enough for anyone to play, with a few tricky parts that may frustrate its target audience. For the majority, however, this is an easy, little venture.

Graphics

Whilst the variety of level designs is small, this is one sharp and colourful game, with cute hand-drawn characters, and good use of 3D effects.

Sound

The tracks played through the adventure do enough to make players bob to the beat, but there is just not enough variety since there are only three of them.

Value

The 30 main story levels are over pretty quickly, so getting all collectibles and playing the timed mode for high scores are what will have a few players coming back. Sadly, even that's not quite enough.

Cubed3 Rating

4/10

Poor

Groove Heaven is clearly one for the kids, but even then, it's far too short of an adventure that lacks variety in its levels and music tracks. The presentation is lovely and the idea is welcome, but it's difficult to recommend this rhythm title over some of the greats already available on the Nintendo 3DS. It's better to save up some extra cash to spend on HarmoKnight in the eShop, or go with a meatier title with more diversity in its gameplay and music, such as Theatrhythm Final Fantasy.